La Touche Cup - the Irish racing equivalent of a Mad Hatters party
It also demands an element of madness among the jockeys.
It is a race which characterises the Punchestown Festival – and in some ways Irish racing as a whole – even though only two races are run over these fences during the course of the week and it defines the ‘Irishness’ of the week not only for the locals but also the increasing numbers of British visitors coming here.
What with drop banks, log fences, an up-and-over double bank, Aintree fences, birch rolls and the affectionately named Tommy’s Hedge and Ruby’s Double all among the 30 obstacles which the contenders have to negotiate in the course of this unbelievably rollercoaster challenge, there really is very little to match this for sheer spectacle during the course of a National Hunt season.
OK, so the Czech’s have their horse-wrecking Velka Pardubica and the British recently came up with the cross-country course at Cheltenham, which is as renowned for jockeys losing their way as anything else, but the Punchestown banks are a truly mad challenge and, having stood yesterday at the legendary double bank out the back of the course – the subject of so many famous pictures and paintings over the years – I can now officially confirm that you’d want to be certified to ride a horse at racing speeds over such obstacles.
And there was universal acclamation from inside and outside the weighroom that the man who eventually won yesterday’s renewal of the La Touche Cup, Ken Whelan, is one of the maddest of them all – an absolutely fearless disciple of the jockey’s code for so many years now.
Whelan is widely regarded as having the sort of bravery that army generals look for in front-line combat troops but, unfortunately for him, while he has been around the block many times in his riding career, history will credit him with being nothing more than a journeyman practitioner.
He is the sort of fellow that is the first to get a call from trainers with dodgy jumpers and he never fails to answer that call. Invariably, however, having done the hard work with difficult horses, he gets jocked off in favour of more fashionable pilots.
And to a certain extent that was the case yesterday as Whelan piloted the unfancied former eventer Oh Jackie to beat Tony Martin’s 9/4 joint favourite Wonderkid, a horse which Whelan had previously ridden at the Cheltenham festival last month, but subsequently lost the ride to Paul Carberry.
Nevertheless, Whelan’s never-say-die attitude saw him get the call from restricted Co Antrim trainer Stuart Crawford to take the ride on Oh Jackie and the ten year old mare responded magnificently under a very patient ride from the jockey to take the honours.
“That was absolutely super,” he conceded, “She galloped all the way to the line and it was great. In all my years riding, I’ve never missed this race and to win it is fantastic.”
Whelan allowed that his familiarity with Wonderkid, was probably an asset on the day and he said that he had thought beforehand that Tony Martin’s horse would be affected by the 12st 3lb he was asked to carry.
“When I saw him cantering towards the end, I decided to kick on and it was the right thing to do, thank God,” he commented.
For the trainer this was as much unexpected as it was welcome and he said his first success under rules had not exactly been planned.
“Last week I was happy just to win a point-to-point with her, so it doesn’t get any better than this. That was my first winner, although I have trained a few successful point-to-pointers. I’m sure my eventing background stood me in great stead today and Oh Jackie has evented herself.
“This was not planned a couple of weeks ago but I’ve been working hard at it for a while and she would be as good a jumper as I have sat on and that would include some good eventers.”
Crawford admitted that he had backed his horse yesterday and he now has great things planned for the mare, including a possible trip to Cheltenham next year, although he did concede that the Punchestown track probably suits her better.
One man who has been synonymous with the La Touche Cup has been Athlacca trainer Enda Bolger, but yesterday his remarkable run of ten consecutive victories in the race came to an end. One of his pre-race favourites, Cheltenham winner Garde Champetre was withdrawn because of concerns about the ground. His other entry Freneys Well could only manage fourth while his other horse Ben Adam fell.
The last word, however, goes to the terribly resilient, if slightly bonkers winning jockey.
“I told the boys this morning that I thought there could be an upset here. I told them I could feel it in my water. But then, knowing my luck, I thought it was probably a kidney infection!”
